Woman set to be Costa Rica's new president

Submitted by pekwan on Monday, February 8th, 2010

AFP

Monday, February 8th, 2010 12:35:00

SAN JOSE: Costa Ricans voted yesterday in elections to choose a successor to Nobel Peace Prize winning President Oscar Arias, with a woman tipped to become the country's first female head of state.

After polls closed at 6pm local time yesterday, all eyes in the Central American nation were on whether the winning candidate would grasp the more than 40 per cent of the vote necessary to avoid a runoff.

Pre-election surveys gave a nearly 20-point lead to ruling National Liberation Party's Laura Chinchilla (pic), a former vice president whom opponents accuse of being a puppet of Arias.

Chinchilla's nearest rivals are right-wing candidate Otto Guevara and Otton Solis, from the centerleft, who narrowly lost to Arias in 2006.

Balloting took place calmly throughout Latin America's oldest democracy, which has no army, amid fears of high abstention rates.

"It's a duty of conscience to go out to vote," said Archbishop Hugo Barrantes during mass attended by some of the nine candidates in the capital of the Catholic nation yesterday.

Around 2.8 million inhabitants of the country famed for its lush vegetation and fauna, were eligible to vote for a new president, two vice presidents, as well as 57 lawmakers and municipal leaders.

The elections again tested the organisational skills of the National Liberation Party (PLN), which has dominated politics in Costa Rica for the past six decades.

Insecurity is now a concern for voters in a country which has long prided itself on its stability in a region wracked by drug trafficking, gang violence and awash with guns from decades of civil wars.

Chinchilla, 50, named the fight against organised crime as a top priority.

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